Saturnine: Siege of Terra: The Horus Heresy, Book 4

With over 50 volumes the Horus Heresy series is a masterclass in padding, drawing out story points over years. So it should be no surprise that the climatic Siege of Terra series is just as padded. After the first few books I was ready to give up on this, or at least de-prioritize it, but rave reviews on the internet (plus an impending 12 hour flight) got me to buy it.And it was OK.I can see what got some people excited, there are massive battles, individual duels, clever tricks and revelations. Sanguinius and Rogal Dorn get prominent roles and finally face off against some of the traitors. Several secondary characters meet their fates. The Imperium gets a victory of sorts. Noted plot device John Grammaticus stops by to reveal information about the history of the Emperor, the immortal Perpetuals and the origins of the Space Marines and the Primarchs.But... it all feels very rote. Author Dan Abnett is bound by the same rigid plot outline as the other authors in this series so the major characters all have miraculous escapes so they can be there for the next book. Abnett pads this out by introducing several new characters, well-fleshed out soldiers fighting in a massive battle between gods and demons and providing humanizing perspective. Which is cool, except that's exactly what the previous books did.So... this book is more of what you've come to expect from the Horus Heresy and Siege of Terra. But since this is the fourth book in the series it is really starting to drag. How many more accounts of soldiers manning the walls, ever more hopeless odds among the smoke and dust do you want to read? Even the author complains about running out of ways to say the same thing. At this point a book focusing on the rest of Terra, or the space war, or anything except walls and trenches, would be welcome.

It's all about the Primarchs and we get the best from Dan Abnett. Really enjoyed this one and couldn't put it down. The followup, Mortis, is really disappointing in comparison. Saturnine is start to finish great. Mortis takes a lifetime to get anywhere and it's obvious they are milking it. The only redeeming feature of Mortis is the huge titan battle at the end and maybe some of the fear, hopelessness, and faith of normal humans. It just takes way too long to reveal any of it.

I've read about 20 of the 50 some-odd novels in the Horus Heresy series. When recommending them, I usually say, "Read the first five, then anything by Dan Abnett or Graham McNeill." The story as a whole is a compelling one, a story of betrayal and the perception of "the truth." But, Dan Abnett takes it to a whole other sphere with Saturnine. Essentially, the book is about a battle on four different fronts. But it's the nuance of the book that makes it marvelous. Each front is handled in a different style, from a different perspective, as not to make it a bunch of "bolter porn." The prose is excellent as is typical of Abnett. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone, especially anyone who is already invested in the Horus Heresy series.**Mild Spoilers**To anyone who has been reading this series, this book takes the time to answer a few questions as to the Emperor's origins and back story AND how and why the primarchs were created and more interestingly, scattered across the galaxy. This nugget is worth the price of admission alone.

The authors of this incredibly long series are locked into certain characters, timelines, and final ending. What separates Dan Abnet from the rest are the subcharacters, the mere mortals that exist within the Empire. They connect the readers (us mere mortals) to events beyond legend, to battles of the gods!

This book is great. The Horus heresy and the siege of Terra books are a real pleasure to read. After all the setbacks suffered by the loyalists you finally get a glimpse of hope in this book. I both can't wait for the rest of series and dread it because you can only read them for the first time once. This is an experience diehard warhammer 40k fans will cherish. I really think these books set the bar for something to be called truly epic. There are some great interviews that include Dan Abnett regarding the writing of these books I'd recommend checking out if you are a fan. Just google it or look at the Siege Of Terra/Horus Heresy website.I was there the day Horus slew the Emperor.

I have read and owned every HH book until recently going back to 2007. The last few were disappointing. BL seems to have an agenda of pushing out over priced short novels filled with garbage the last few years. The siege of terra books though have been enjoyable and remind me of the first novels from back in the day. Dan Abnett is always a great storyteller. The Seige of Twrra series are thick books, nice action, enjoyable characters and for once some of the traitor characters are getting what they deserve instead of steam rolling over the loyalists with impunity. Can't wait to read the next even though we all know how it ends. Worth the price...for once.

This is the type of of book you read more than once. All the great characters from the heresy are there, and this book adds flesh to their stories, and lays the foundation to what is coming— not just in the near future but the current 40k era. Lots here about the Emperor’s backstory from people who knew him. Big questions answered about the Sigillite, the Primarch scattering, and Abaddon’s view of Chaos.Have to say a few encounters were a bit anticlimactic. Still, a solid addition. Better than Last Wall. As a heresy fan, you know you have to read it. And yeah, worth it.

Best. Warhammer. Book. Ever. Period. Dan Abnett is an unmatched genius. I kneel. What more can be said but that. Solar War comes close. But Saturnine is built a little different.

Dan Abnett once again effortless out-writes every other member of the Black Library's stable of authors within the first 6 of 7 pages of this fourth instalment of the Siege of Terra, and shows why he should've just been allowed to write this most important saga of 40k lore on his own.Too many of his fellow writers fall into the trap of writing the Space Marines from the Space Marine's own point of view, basically re-stating imperial propaganda that the original lore wanted to be taken ironically. Alone out of the BL authors on this series, Abnett appears to recognize that creating a bunch of super-powered transhuman warlords and giving them command of hundreds of thousands of genetically engineered killing machines was actually a pretty bad idea in the first place, rather than assuming the problems that emerged were just due to a few bad apples amongst them. In his hands, the loyalist Primarchs are presented as flawed and all too human despite their prodigious powers, while his use of the Perpetuals and criminals to examine the Emperor from a third point of view allows us to see how some truly neutral observers feel about everything. Even the loyal Space Marines are clearly threatening and sinister to the regular human population, and the 'golden age' of the Great Crusade is (accurately) presented as a time of inequality and dictatorship.This ambiguity means Dan's novels are the only ones in the series which capture the true spirit of 40k - there's no good guys, and the closest the setting gets to good guys is basically a genocidal fascist dictatorship. Combine this clarity of vision with his excellent style, mastery of pacing, in-depth characterization and marvellous control of plotting mechanics, and you end up with a book that is comfortably head and shoulders above any of the previous entries in the series; a real breath of fresh air after the amateurish The First Wall.

Dan Abnett knocks it out of the park with the fourth installment of the siege. The previous entries I thought were ok. The sheer backdrop of the solar war and opening exchanges in the siege were worthy presentations, but Saturnine captures the scale of the ground war, the complexity of the defence and the sheer desperation pervading most scenes is truly impressive. All the while we have yet again a vast array of characters, plots and brilliant pay offs for long running plots. I have been a long time HH fan and I am quite sad that the saga is drawing to a close. However, if saturnine is anything to go by, what an ending we will have. "'What have we won?' 'We have won the day'". Thank you Dan Abnett for winning the day.

... that my wife got an unprompted reading of my favourite bits.And here's why.The core of the book is a series of scenes that bounce between multiple fronts in the siege of Terra. Each could have been stretched out into a really good novel (with one exception that I'll get to). Each has a great set up, character description and development, and a pay off that makes each story into something meaningful both within the book and more broadly in the series. All the old characters fit with their characterisation in earlier series novels and the development therein. Each of the new characters is interesting and acts like an actual human/superhuman.And there are sufficient surprises that make sense in context of what's gone before that you feel good recognising why X happened even if you didn't see it coming. Over the top of that there is a set of overarching narratives about the way victories in one place require sacrifice in another, and the impact that has on decision makers, how faith can motivate, and how legends are created. It also gives the Imperium a chance to kick through a lot of plot armour that's been getting wearing...That level of writing cohesion is rare. Dan Abnett knows his stuff but this is (IMHO) one of his best.But here's the thing. There are a couple of bits of this book which feel to me a little undercooked, there's a character in it who I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with, and that varies by how much exposition and historical reference he spouts. It's too far the wrong way for me here, echoes of the old Star Child/Sensei narratives...That character's sections feel like set up without meaningful resolution and that leaves the lore dumps a little orphaned... I'd diagnose 'hero from another story' syndrome here and maybe those sections would have been a great short story rather than shoehorned in here. I'd normally knock a five star down to a four star for something like that.Yet I'm still rating this a solid 5 stars. And I'm still reading bits out to my wife. And the undercooked section is still pretty good. And that's what gets me. There is writing here that's so good it could probably be dropped into a three star story and still make it jump to a five. I'd also add that if you haven't got a background in this series it might be a little confusing but that's like bashing a romance for having a 'happily ever after'.Great book. Read it.So that's it.

Hands down, one of the best Heresy books to date! I'll try to be spoiler free if I can.The combat is legendary, using some of the best players in this cosmic bugaloo. New law regarding Primarchs is epic, game changing and entirely unforseen. Yet it feels like it fits, not crowbarred in like "Primaris" (spit). The combat is top class, capturing the scale of a cataclysmic conflict of uncountenaced calamity. Truly epic storytelling, particularly about the Primarchs. Each one, whether loyalist or traitor, gets his time in the sun. Honestly, well done Mr Abnett. My hats of to you.

Dan Abnett delivers the best Heresy book yet.Without spoilers :The situation is grim with the loyalists being fought back further and further against impossible odds.Both sides plot for advantage and you are left guessing as to how much Dorn and Pertuabo are out guessing each other to manipulate even their own side. The reader sees that Dorn is not all that he seems whilst popular characters Diaz and Raldoran return, and the Khan.Throw in Sinderman with a piece of paper from Dorn authorising him to record the “truth” - long time fans will see where this is going if they haven’t already read the Beast Awakens series.Olli Pious surfaces fighting alongside imperial troops ..... or does he ?Meanwhile Abaddon plots to end the war with a decisive strike.So many plots weave together with a real sense of history in the marking , there’s not a single boring paragraph and a great overall picture of the conflict is created.And just when you thought that was it for book 4, the final paragraph throws the known history of the Siege out the window.Have Faith in the Emperor.